The Child Ballads are traditional ballads from England and Scotland, collected and anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. The collection contains examples from the 13th century onward. However, the majority of the ballads date to the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Although some have very ancient influences, only a handful can be definitively traced to before 1600. Child Ballads are heavier and darker than other ballads. The topics of the ballads are romance, enchantment, devotion, determination, obsession, jealousy, forbidden love, hallucination, the suppressed truth, supernatural experiences and deeds, half-human creatures, teenagers, family strife, the boldness of outlaws, authority, lust, death, karma, punishment, sin, morality, vanity, folly, dignity, nobility, and many others. They contain stories of national heroes like Robin Hood and mysterious creatures like elves and fairies.

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Francis J. Child (1825 -1896) is an American scholar and educator famous for his systematic study, collecting, and cataloging of folk ballads. Child was a professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University, where he produced influential editions of English poetry. In 1876 he was named Harvard's first Professor of English, allowing him to focus on academic research and ballads.